In Search Of History Archive

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When America Was Truly The Land Of Opportunity

Milton Friedman,

Free to Choose

(TV Series)

For [early immigrants] America was truly the land of opportunity. For the first time in their lives, many were truly free to pursue their own objectives. That freedom released the human energies which created the United States. There were few government programs to turn to and nobody expected them. But also there were few rules and regulations. There were no licenses, no permits, no red tape to restrict them. They found, in fact, a free market, and most of them thrived on it.

Cambodia's Deadly Experiment

Matt Kibbe,

Conservative Review

In the 1950s, students started gathering in Paris. They were reading Karl Marx. They were forming book clubs. They were trying to come up with a better version of society. One that moved away from the division of labor. One that moved away from the capitalism in the big cities that they so despised. ... One of those students would change his name to Pol Pot. He and his colleagues formed a new political party, a takeover in Cambodia. They called themsevles the Khmer Rouge. ... Under Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, one out of four people in that country died in less than four years.

Keynesian Economics and the Great Depression

Gary Wolfram, Hillsdale College

Hillsdale College economics professorGary Wolfram discusses Keynesian economics and the factors that pulled the national economy out of the Great Depression. The story of World War II shows that government spending may produce activity, but not the prosperity of a truly healthy economy.

Hillsdale College History Prof. Burton Folsom: What The Invention of the Airplane Teaches About Free Markets

Capitalism: The Engine Of Human Progress

Gary Wolfram,

A Capitalist Manifesto

It took six thousand years from the invention of the wheel until we developed the two-wheeled cart. … From the time of Moses to Wyatt Earp we moved from two-wheeled carts to four-wheeled carts — buckboards and stagecoaches. Yet Wyatt Earp, who is an adult when he participates in the gunfight at the OK Corral, sees the movement from four-wheeled carts to the Model T. My grandparents were born before man had ever seen powered flight, yet lived to see a time when you could buy a trip into space. The rapid increase in innovation and the wealth of the masses occurred because the West gradually developed the economic system of market capitalism and a compatible political system.

The Birth of Liberal Fascism

Jonah Goldberg,

Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left

The progressives [of Woodrow Wilson’s era] were the real social Darwinists as we think of the term today—though they reserved the term for their enemies They believed in eugenics. They were imperialists. They were convinced that the state could, through planning and pressure, create a pure race, a society of new men. They were openly and proudly hostile to individualism. Religion was a political tool, while politics was the true religion. The progressives viewed the traditional system of constitutional checks and balances as an outdated impediment to progress because such horse-and-buggy institutions were a barrier to their own ambitions. Dogmatic attachment to constitutions, democratic practices, and antiquated laws was the enemy of progress for fascists and progressives alike. . . .Today, liberals remember the progressives as do-gooders who cleaned up the food supply and agitated for a more generous social welfare state and better working conditions. Fine, the progressives did that. But so did the Nazis and the Italian Fascists. And they did it for the same reasons and in loyalty to roughly the same principles.

The Gold Standard: How Britain Made Itself — And The World — Rich

Nathan Lewis,

Gold: The Once and

Future Money

From 1880 to 1914, British exports of goods and services averaged around 30 percent of national income, a stupendous figure. Britain had made itself rich; now it was setting about making the entire world rich. This was made possible, of course, by the world gold standard centered around London and the Bank of England. Investors, importers, and exporters did not have to worry about foreign exchange fluctuations; tariffs within the empire were low; and Britain's legal system, which it exported to its colonies, reduced the legal and political uncertainties. The Bank of England's commitment to the gold standard was unwavering, and as a result it was able to hold together the world gold standard with only a pittance of gold in reserves. ... For decade after decade, hard money stayed hard; exchange rates stayed fixed; interest rates remained low; and gold remained the basis of it all.

The Gold Standard: How Britain Made Itself — And The World — Rich

Nathan Lewis,

Gold: The Once and

Future Money

From 1880 to 1914, British exports of goods and services averaged around 30 percent of national income, a stupendous figure. Britain had made itself rich; now it was setting about making the entire world rich. This was made possible, of course, by the world gold standard centered around London and the Bank of England. Investors, importers, and exporters did not have to worry about foreign exchange fluctuations; tariffs within the empire were low; and Britain&#39;s legal system, which it exported to its colonies, reduced the legal and political uncertainties. The Bank of England&#39;s commitment to the gold standard was unwavering, and as a result it was able to hold together the world gold standard with only a pittance of gold in reserves. ... For decade after decade, hard money stayed hard; exchange rates stayed fixed; interest rates remained low; and gold remained the basis of it all.

The Industrial Revolution: How the West Eclipsed Asia

Niall Ferguson,

Civilization: The West and the Rest

Like the French Revolution before it, the British Industrial Revolution spread across Europe. But this was a peaceful conquest. . . The first true cotton mill, Richard Arkwright's at Cromford in Derbyshire, was built in 1771. Within seven years a copy appeared in France ... The Americans, who had the advantage of being able to grow their own cotton ... were a little slower: the first cotton mill appeared in Bass River, Massachusetts, in 1788. ... In 1800 seven out of the world's ten biggest cities had still been Asian, and Beijing had still exceeded London in size. By 1900, largely as a result of the Industrial Revolution, only one of the biggest was Asian; the rest were European or American.

India’s Failed Socialist Experiment

Thomas DiLorenzo,

The Problem With Socialism

India was once one of the wealthiest countries on earth. Its textile industry was the envy of the world; it had sophisticated financial markets, many talented entrepreneurs, millions of acres of fertile farmland, and plenty of extravagant wealth. . . . Unfortunately, in rebellion against the traditions of its “capitalist- imperialist” masters … it adopted a homegrown version of Soviet- style central economic planning. Under Prime Minister Nehru … India adopted a series of “Five- Year Plans” modeled after the notoriously failed Soviet Five- Year Plans. … It was no more successful in India than it was in the Soviet Union as India, after independence, became synonymous with “poverty.” In the 1980s, Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi essentially gave up on socialism and cut taxes and deregulated and privatized industries. The result was that India’s economy finally became revitalized and started to create wider prosperity.

Special Video Feature

In Search Of History

For [early immigrants] America was truly the land of opportunity. For the first time in their lives, many were truly free to pursue their own objectives. That freedom released the human energies which created the United States. There were few government programs to turn to and nobody expected them. But also there were few rules and regulations. There were no licenses, no permits, no red tape to restrict them. They found, in fact, a free market, and most of them thrived on it.